…commiserate with deceased families
…call for proper legislation against future occurrence
….advocate Forest Service Corps..
A former lawmaker in Ondo State, Hon Niran Sule-Akinsuyi has condemned the mass killings in Owo and described it as a deliberate and calculated attack on Yoruba land.
Hon Sule-Akinsuyi while reacting to the Sunday, June 5 attack on St Francis Catholic Church in Owo where many lives were lost and others sustained various degrees of injuries said it was an attempt to truncate the peace of Owo Kingdom with violence and distort the people’s way of life and their future posterity with fear.
While emphasizing the significance of Owo as being central to the socio-political development of Yoruba Land said that this unfolding genocide should not be downplayed or ignored, lest it spiral out of control.
He noted that the bandit chose a wrong location as entrance to the South-West for the purposes of creating a circle of violence that could be manipulated and inflamed by external forces.
He described it as an affront on Yoruba Land and everything possible must be done to address the situation as such incident has never happened in contemporary Yoruba society.
While asking question on what is responsible for the killings, he said that the only thing certain is that the terrible spiral of violence in Nigeria has been given another twist.
According to him, the pattern and tradition of the attack is similar in intensity and ferocity to the activities of terrorists and bandits in other parts of the country where governance has broken down turning swathes of land into vast zones of lawlessness.
He called on Yoruba leaders to find solution that will nip this kind of coordinated attack in the bud before the crisis becomes intractable.
In finding solution, Hon Niran Sule noted that critical look must be given to the claims of some accredited leaders from the Northern part of the country that those involved in this kind of acts are “foreign terrorists”.
He emphasized that Community Leaders must check the influx of strangers into their domains and identify those that came with a mission to populate them and unleash a reign of terror on their kind and hospitable hosts.
He urged the state government to as a matter of urgency audit the activities of illegal immigrants who turned the forest reserves into an incubator for all sorts of crimes that are responsible for the misfortune that took place in Owo on Sunday.
The former Commissioner for Special Duties stressed that leaders must also recognize the advice of former Benue State Governor, Mr Gabriel Suswan that people should return to their home and defend their land “Do not allow anybody to make you slave in your own land”.
“Our Leaders must also be strengthen by the message of former Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Ayodele Fayose that we must “defend our land against this “Philistine” which characters are marked by extremism, bloodshed and destructions”.
“It is clear that we need a new legislation in our region to establish vibrant institutions for the protection of lives and property in Yoruba land”.
Hon Niran Sule called for the establishment of a “Forest Service Corps” in the states of the South West to clean and restore the forest on a scale that could mitigate against the effects of climate change and food insecurity.
He also advocate the establishment of training institution for the Amotekun Security Outfit where Networking and Early Warning Program will be priotise as part of their training.
“It is pertinent to note that victims of such unwarranted attack must not be buried in a hurry but with decency at a location that will put Owo people in proper remembrance that “at a time in our history, some strangers living among us in this country did this to us”.
Hon Niran Sule concluded that the task before Yoruba leaders is to put these criminal elements in a position where they will not be able to harm the people of the region again.